» Fri May 13, 2011 6:20 pm
The old classic Visual Packs, along with Visual Packs XT and VP Nature, retain the "feel" of the basic game pretty well. They're not the highest resolution textures available anymore, but are far better than the "vanilla" ones, in my opinion, without impacting frame rates significantly. After that, I end up overwriting parts of it with about 20-30 smaller "specific" replacers for everything from local architecture, armor, weapon, and creature replacers (mostly Connary's work, if you can still find it) to reflective silverware (Ghostnull) and other small details that make everything look "credible".
Find a decent texture viewer, so you don't have to add a texture mod to your game, decide that you don't like the one specific texture, then have to re-install the previous texture pack to get back to where you were. I generally preview the textures before I add them, and often "pick and choose" favorite details from two or three different artists' works: "I like this woodgrain, but I prefer that metal strip". After spending a few nights getting it all pretty much how I like it, doing it all over again from scratch would be a traumatic experience.